(used with a singular or plural verb)a system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture.
(used with a plural verb)the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.: medical ethics; Christian ethics.
(used with a plural verb)moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.
(used with a singular verb)that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.Compare axiological ethics, deontological ethics.
Origin of ethics
1400–50; late Middle English ethic + -s3, modeled on Greektà ēthiká, neuter plural
(functioning as singular)the philosophical study of the moral value of human conduct and of the rules and principles that ought to govern it; moral philosophySee also meta-ethics
(functioning as plural)a social, religious, or civil code of behaviour considered correct, esp that of a particular group, profession, or individual
(functioning as plural)the moral fitness of a decision, course of action, etche doubted the ethics of their verdict
Derived Formsethicist, noun
ethic
noun
a moral principle or set of moral values held by an individual or groupthe Puritan ethic
"the science of morals," c.1600, plural of Middle English ethik "study of morals" (see ethic). The word also traces to Ta Ethika, title of Aristotle's work.
ethic
n.
late 14c., ethik "study of morals," from Old French etique (13c.), from Late Latin ethica, from Greek ethike philosophia "moral philosophy," fem. of ethikos "ethical," from ethos "moral character," related to ethos "custom" (see ethos). Meaning "a person's moral principles" is attested from 1650s.
The branch of philosophy that deals with morality. Ethics is concerned with distinguishing between good and evil in the world, between right and wrong human actions, and between virtuous and nonvirtuous characteristics of people.